Letchworth

Next and last show in August was Letchworth which was at huntingdon racecourse. Id never been there before as last year the show was at Shuttleworth college. I was really suprised how nice it was the exercise area was right in the middle of the race track with a nice little lake/pond in the middle. Really nice. Where the rings were was also really nice and flat, it was a bit of a walk from the car park but still really nice.

I had entered all 3 days of Letchworth with Rommy so I knew I had lots of time to practise our contacts in a show environment. Hes been getting so much better but theres always room for improvement because sometimes hes just so wild he just cant slow down enough. bless him. The first run was G 3-5 jumping which went Rommy ran well but I left him too soon on a 180 from a long jump over to a normal jump and he pull off the long jump I thought hed get a refusal for it but for some reason he didnt and just wasted loads of time but ended up in 2nd place!

I had heard there was a practise ring there on the friday which i thought would be perfect, unfortunately when it came for our go there was a massive gust of wind and my little man got blown off the dogwalk :(. Its never happened to him before so we were both really shaken up by it. I was really worried hed hurt himself but luckily our amazing physio Sally was at the show to check over him and said he was fine. So we went in for our agility which I really didnt expect anything from him given his accident and i thought his confidence was knocked a bit so I just wanted him to have fun. He was definitely slower than normal and more clingy but he went clear and got a 3rd place. SOOO proud of him.


The rest of the weekend we spent working on contacts, he got a place (cant remember which) in a helter skelter class and our last run of the weekend was pairs with Chantal and Savannah. Rommy and Sav are both nuts and had never run together before so we didnt really know what theyd do but they were amazing we had a bit of a bad batton change but they got a double clear and got 2nd place! Clever little shelties!! They loved it!

Im getting good at all this catching up stuff. I'll have more for you soon little blog. Then we can get onto the fun of winter training :D


Byeeeeee

KCI catch up!!

Hello little blog! I know.... Im not very good at catching up with everything but here we go. Lets give it a shot.


So all the way back in August we did the Kennel Club International at Rockingham Castle. I had entered Rommy into the Novice Cup qualifiers on the Friday in the vain hope we might go clear. In maybe one round, never mind two. As well as that Id entered into some normal classes on the saturday.


So anyway, Day 1 Friday. Our first class was the Novice Cup Agility. It was a nice course but I just went in to it with the main aim of just making sure Rommy his dog walk. So to my suprise my little man went and did a cracking run and went CLEAR! Stopped his dog walk just like hes supposed to! Ive been holding all in normal runs this year just to make a point to him really. The first clear round he'd had in an agility since May! lol! I was sooo pleased with him, it was such a suprise to me and that really just made my day... I really didnt care what he did for the rest of the day after that. It was a massive class with over 100 dogs in but my the little dude only went and got 6th!! SO pleased with him. We then had a to wait a really long time to do the Novice Cup Jumping and it was a really nice fast flowy course. He was such a little star and went clear AGAIN! I handled like an idiot at one point and stood right in his way and made him do a REALLY wide turn around me but he came 6th again and there was less than a second between him and 1st place!! We had a double clear! there werent many at all so I knew we might have even have got lucky enough to make it through to the Novice Cup Final in the big ring on the saturday but I needed to make sure and then came a VERY long wait to get the combined results but we did it and we qualified for the final the next day! EEEK! I was so proud of him to get us there. I knew the top 4 would go crufts but considering I didnt think we'd get as far as we had I really excited to go in the main ring.
 So onto day 2! I was SOOOOO nervous by the next morning our morning runs hadnt gone well, I think Rommy was just really tired from being so clever the day before to be honest. I didnt get to walk the course until lunch and we would run just after lunch. There was some definite trappy bits around!! Thanks to Rhoda for helping me walk the course and for the moral support otherwise id have been a nervous wreck LOL! So the time finally came and Rommy was soooo gobby and pushy on the startline and I had to set him up twice! Cheeky! But off we went, it was going so well and then we got E'd. I sent him over the wrong jump :(. My shoulders were all wrong. Oh well. We tried our best and had a great time doing it!

Thanks to Lian for filming :)

So things ive learnt from this years KCI - Rommy LOVES a crowd and finals in big rings really arent so scary and i shouldnt get so nervous because its acutally really fun :) after all its only agility, right?

Catch up! ... FAB

So I haven't really been in the blogging mood lately with stuff that's been going on but I really miss it and I haven't updated in so long. So much has happened! Will do it in a few different posts otherwise this one will be a monster and if anyone actually reads this thing then I'd prob bore you all do death if you ever got to the end lol.

So all the way back in the first weekend of August I had been planning on going to Barking Mad summer show but instead I decided that we really did need to practise Rommys contacts before our big KCI adventure the next weekend so I had entered our first FAB show in Oxfordshire! It only took 45 mins to get to which was great and it was a super relaxed day with only 2 rings and both were netted. I really really happy about the netted rings as our aim was for NFC contacts so he couldn't get distracted and sod off. The only downside to the show was I had to do A LOT of waiting around but it was all worth it in the end. We did two NFC agilities and 1 steeplechase course just got a blast. His NFC runs were ace! We even had a set up with a tunnel right at the end of the dog walk which is Rommys nemesis when it comes to stopping on contacts. Why would you stop when there's a tunnel of run sitting right there? But he was a complete dude and did some amazing work, just like the ones he does in training. YAY finally! After that the only competition run we did of the day was the steeplechase, it was American style with an A frame. I handled like a prat and almost fell over, it was such a comical run that we even got the judge laughing HAHA. Even with it being a super sloppy run that it was he still got himself a 2nd so pretty damn good. I was just happy that I didn't break anything and couldn't help being finishing the run laughing at ourselves. 

Definitely going to be trying more FAB shows next year for some practise runs, really nice and chilled out shows. Loved seeing all the tiny dogs getting to run on micro aswell :)  

Agility Club - Starters Challenge

We qualified for the starters challenge over a year ago at Wellingborough 2012 and Ive been sooo nervous about it ever since and it was finally the day over the weekend! We were lucky to have Rhoda come along with us which was great for the support and definitely kept me from worrying so much. Thank you!! Im very lucky to train with people who have qualified themselves so got lots of bits of advice but oh my god I was nervous. Its seems to be a J9 thing to do well in the starters after Rhoda and Matthew both having done it and done well with Brax and Brodie as well as Paul and Chester winning it a couple of years ago! So I really wanted to do reasonably ok. We also had Chantal and Savannah the lovely tri sheltie bitch who is great in the final as well so it was really nice having someone else we knew in it too!

We finally got to the show after having to take a bit of a detour going the wrong way around the M25 because of an accident, first up was sheltie team. Rommy wasn't in it but Rhoda and Toad were with some other great shelties! I always love watching shelties run (obviously lol) so it was really nice getting to see a whole team of them :). They had 15f in the end so didnt qualify for crufts but I enjoyed watching them anyway. Maybe Rommy will get to have a go one day!

I'd entered Rommy in a couple of classes 3-5 agility and 4-6 jumping in the day as I knew the starters wouldnt be till late afternoon/evening. I know he needs to run some of the crazy off before he settles for some good runs. Unluckily enough the only 2 runs were on at exactly the same time and even though it was expected to rain it was blazing hot so by the second run his brain was gone. He ran the jumping first which was a really fast flowing course with quite a few trappy bits and a pretty tricky weave entry. My only really aim was to just send him in the weaves and hope he got them and he did! was so pleased I forgot I had to pull him off a jump after and got him E'd lol. Ooops oh well, he was a good boy bless him! The agility wasnt good but he did a lovely seesaw and the first time doing his running aframe to weaves in the ring and he got it perfectly so not all bad :)




We had A LOT of waiting to do after that as the final wasnt on till 6-6:30ish but I got to see champ! I have definitely been living under a rock somewhere because I hadnt seen Champ before in person and it was great! so many amazing dogs and handlers. the courses looked reaallllyyyyyy hard but it was really great to watch :D. I was really pleased in the end that a sheltie won the medium ticket! go shelties :D. One downside to watching the champ was the size of the crowd and it got me really worried about the starters. It did look like it was going to rain by then so I was still hoping a lot of people would leave and not bother staying to watch.

So after a lot of waiting it was raining and the starters was on, it was a really nice startery course and Rommy was on 5th and I was just really hope he didnt run out the ring... Turns out he didnt (YAY!) but he didnt go clear. He missed his weave entry because he was too busy looking at the judge in bright pink hahaha. Silly puppy lol. But I didnt give up! I kept running like everyone had told me too and as there was only 2 clears he ended up 4th! Bless him he tried so hard and he really did love the crowd. I think he thought he had a fan club lol.


For being such a good boy I bought him a hoof. Hes only ever had a hoof once before but i thought he deserved one and omg he loves it! He wont leave it anyone for fear of me steeling it lol. Wow it stink!
:)

Billingshurst

So last weekend we were at Billingshurst 50th anniversary show at Cranleigh showground. It was a ridiculously hot day but I was one of the lucky ones that wasn't in the ring first so I got there at a leisurely time of 9:15. Even luckier got to park under a massive tree in the shade which actually stayed shady for the majority of the day. So first class up was C1-4 Agility which was a really nice course, really nice and flowing. If I had to pick anything that wasn't so great it was the weaves were REALLY close to the edge of the ring and a photographer. We didn't have for a while so I hard a nice load of time to get Rommy ready. He has really surprised me these last couple of weeks how well hes coped with the heat, as long as he has his swamp coat on and stays in the cool car between runs hes been his normally nutty self in the ring. One thing I was kind of hoping I might see a bit of a difference with was his focus this weekend because hes been on Calm and Focus powder for about a month now and 4 days before the show  I also changed him onto Burns Alert for working dogs so I was hoping having both together would make a difference and to my surprise I actually think it did! So we finally had our run in the agility, it was a nice straight line (I got a wait :D) into the tunnel and then onto the dogwalk so the plan was I could get ahead to help Rommy remember to stop and it worked! He wasnt expecting it so pretty much fell off the end because he was going too fast BUT he immediately tried to put himself back on! SO HAPPY! Considering this is all I've been wanting him to do for months it definitely made my day... after that he had a few issues with weaves missing them and then really wasn't very sure of himself in them. But after that he went on to do some amazing contacts, flew his aframe and did it perfectly and then straight onto the seesaw and did his 2o2o again.... yes it was a bit to the side but I'm really not going to be too picky at the mo then he had a bit of a slip on the last 3 jumps but he was fine and I was just SO pleased with his contacts.

Videos thanks to Rhoda and Matthew :) 

Next was the c1-4 Jumping which was a bit of an weird course...  nice but I thought it was a bit tough on baby dogs!.... dunno if you can tell in the video but the first line(ish) of jumps are all at really odd angles and for fast dogs it was really hard! SO anyways... Rommys run it was great apart from the weaves, he just didn't slow himself down enough for them but on the upside he was a lot better in them than he was in the agility. But again he worked so hard in it and really focused and I got a wait which I REALLY needed!

Last run was a really nice 3-5 Agility. Unlucky for us it was really soon after the jumping so he didn't get time to cool off properly. Don't have a video of him in this but his seesaw wasn't as great as the first one BUT then I managed to get ahead of him on the dogwalk again and he really slowed down and thought about what he was meant to be doing and got his position perfectly! After that he seemed to have got his confidence with weaves a bit and got them and popped out at the 10th pole because he saw the tunnel trap sitting there for him but put him back in and he did them fine and even let me front cross out (hes only just started letting me do it in training) but then after this we came completely unstuck. Rommy was just too hot and even ran past the a frame to finish :( managed to get him back for the a frame which he got another great contact and last 3 jumps which he did really well and finished. Definitely lesson learnt with letting him cool down enough between runs! Bad Jenni! But he was such a star, I was so pleased with him. No clears or places but I really don't care if he works so well. It turned out to be a really nice show :).

Nothing to go to this weekend. Really glad I've for the weekend off after all this bloody hot weather. We really are winter beings Rommy and I. Next show is Agility Club for Starters Challenge Final! EEK! getting kinda nervous now but hopefully it wont be too bad! Wish us luck!

 

Crazy dog and dogwalks

SO havent been on here in a while. Had some pretty shit family stuff going on so really havent even thought about the whole bloggy thing. But anyways here I am again with a few things to update on.

 Rommy has accidently won into grade 4  at JDA... I say accidently because I was planning on getting him E'd in the run. He didnt stop his dogwalk like he should (more about that later) so I was going to put him back on again but Rommy decided he wanted his clear round and to go grade 4 so he went and finished the course... on his own. Leaving me standing like a numpty at the bottom of the dogwalk. Naughty boy. Needless to say he went and won it by 8 seconds. Blimey. He did pretty well at the rest of JDA getting 2nd C1-3 steeplecase behind a super fast collie, 4th and 5th in some pretty big C3-5 jumping classes. I E'd him in the rest of his agilities because of his insane dogwalk. We did Bitz n Bobz with the same crazy dogwalk issues but he got a 2nd in a jumping.

 SO those crazy dog walks. Pretty sure that the problem is mostly the crazy dog, If anyone has seen Rommy around agility he is completely insane and actually getting pretty uncontrollable lately. I've just started him on some herbal stuff to hopefully calm him down a bit. I KNOW he knows the difference between his running aframe and stopping his dog walk and seesaw, I KNOW he does. I really dont even care if he runs the dw and gets the contact because its really not the point. So I'm now in the process of making him really obsessed with his stopping postition which is going pretty well. So with any luck with all the homework we've been doing and with his herbal stuff we might actually be able to get our dog walk properly at somepoint soon at a show.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fz-ovqEveY 


In general hes been working really well though and his A frames have been really good, still trying to get his confidence up on it but he definitely enjoys doing them! :)

General updates and GT

Ive been meaning to update ALL week but its been one of those funny weeks where everything a bit BLAH. BUT as ever, I can always depend of agility and my wierd little blue and furries to put my in a good mood lol. SO last weekend we went off to GT UKA at Newbury, we had some really lovely weather and I wanted to have a go at the Nug-e-nuff and to practise contacts and to also give a Novice Steeplechase a go.


I got there nice and early to walk the beginners Tug-e-nuff agility, It was sooooo busy, its definitely the biggest UKA ive ever been too, It was more like a KC because of there being a champ on at the same showground on the bank holiday monday. So I walked the agility and was a bit worried about how hilly it was there, espesially with the A frame going right up the hill to begin with. Rommy always tends to be quite high on his running A frame on his first couple of goes before really getting his confidence to really jump the apex well. I felt that the uphill might just make him be just out of the contact, although there was the upside that it was a straight line from the start onto the frame so I hoped the speed would carry him in.  What I'm really aiming for at the moment is him just getting all his contacts in the ring. Im not all that bothered about going clear right now, I really just want him getting his critria from training into the ring with his waits and contacts. the rest of the course was quite nice so I was looking forward to having a go.


 ANYWAYS We had ALOT of waiting around to do before actually getting to run the agility because the midis were in the ring last after about a billion maxis. In the meantime I thought we'd have a go at Novice Steeplechase 2, it was a really nice fast course, but my main aim was to make sure I got a wait at the start, I set Rommy up as far back as I could get him lol he was really reved up but I managed to get a wait to the first jump which was actually a really long way as it was set up so far back. YAY for a nice wait :D. He went clear and was nice and speedy and he managed a 1st! I was really suprised as I saw some really quick cockers go. Clever Rommy.

We still had quite a while to wait around for the agility STILL, walked the jumping before id even got to the agility lol, but that was a nice course too, but it was still on the hill and it was 12 weaves going down the hill which i knew would be tricky. Anyways finally got to do the agility and bloody hell Rommy was INSANE. Got a reasonable wait again (YAY) and much to my suprise he went shooting off down the line and got a lovely Aframe contact, I think i was so suprised he went shooting off over the wrong jump and got E'd lol. He was just wild the rest of the way around but he got the best dogwalk contact hes ever done at a show, unfortunately he had a bit of a dodgey Seesaw but a lot of dogs were having a problem with it as it was going downhill and i think it must have felt abit funny or something. Really happy with the run anyways.


After lunch we had the jumping, and managed to get a little wait again which i was really pleased about. As i had expected he had issues with the weaves going down hill but he got them in the end and the rest of the course he did was lovely so really can't complain because he really tried hard!

Havent got any videos as i went on my own and didnt know anyone so here a picture of Rommy and his lovely trophy

Onto bank holiday monday and the weather was so nice and summery. We went up to Rhodas feild with some others to have some fun at having a go at a Masters jumping course and one of the EO try out courses. I was expecting them to be REALLY hard... and they were. Really enjoyed having a go at them though, Rommy seems to actually really like courses where you have to nag him abit more, really makes him work. I was so happy with him because on his first try he actually went clear on the Masters jumping! haha! What a dude, Heres a video courtesy of Rhoda of his second go at the course where he got E'd  but oh well lol.

 We then had ago at the EO tryouts agility course. OH MY GOD it was sooooo  hard! never got around clear but we had fun anyways. Rommy was even lucky enough to have a go running with Paul and then again with Matthew which is the first time hes run for anyone else and he actually LOVED it, he didnt stop wagging his tail. It normally takes ALOT to get Rommys tail going. Maybe Im not just as fun as them? lol. Oh well, hes stuck with him but he did absolutely love getting a go with someone different. Heres Rommy having a go at the course with me lol. the youtube thing wont work again so here a link
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K8p4gD5Ep8


So thats about it for agility but I managed to get a video of how Rommy and Kizzy actually playing, theyre REALLY rough. Kizzy nearly always starts it like she did here and she actually lost her first baby tooth while doing this lol. Not that she noticed because she was way to busy winding Rommy up while he was waiting to go out for a walk. Does anyone elses cats and dogs play so rough?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XV2btFxc0o

K9 Sports!

Spend Sunday at K9 sports at Littleport, the aim was to concentrate on NFC's to work on Rommys waits and A frame and dogwalk stop position. First off was the beginners jumping which was going to be for wait practice. He did some lovely waits in there and definitely need to be really going to try and be strong with them at shows now, no springing even if he does fly off over the first jump. Being able to practise in the ring with them really did help with him though because he really did a lovely wait. 

 We haven't really done all that much with dog walks since Rommys been better what with retraining the A frame and everything. His stop position at the end has always been good at training but he just tends to forget at shows with all the major excitement so really wanted to work on that and make him get it. So we did the beginners agility NFC to do dog walks and a frames. We did 3 A frames the first one I'm pretty sure he missed (my eyes find it really hard keeping up with him) and then the two after he got, they were a bit high but his first few always are at training so I'm happy with that. Managed to get in a couple of dog walks as well, first one he did what he normally does and flew and then the second one was perfect! Great! Really happy with his mornings work there! 



After his morning of NFC's he had a nice long break to chill in the car. We were planning on doing Split pairs with Rhoda and Brodie but poor Toad had a really unlucky day and hurt his foot/leg and was lame. Hope you feel better soon Brodie! Lucky Rhoda managed to borrow an amazing little poodle called Tia who's nearly 13! You really wouldn't guess shes 13 because shes pretty speedy! I had a bit of a near clash of runs with pairs with a the novice steeplechase but I ended up lucky and managed to get into the ring first to have a go at our first Novice. I have to say Rommy was nothing but WILD. His rest in the car had clearly charged his batteries because our wait practice was out the window BAD Jenni! but there was no way he would ever have waited because he was just a complete nutcase, I don't think hes EVER gone that fast at a show before! Of course he got E'd but I really couldn't help but laugh at him because he was just a complete fruit cake. Maybe resting in the car for that long wasn't such a good idea? One thing that was a great idea was doing that Novice before the Pairs because he had got the crazy out of his system, luckily I was running second so I had a bit of time to get my breathe back. Rommy was running over Toy height as well so I knew it was going to be a challenge but he did a lovely Clear and so did Tia! GO TEAM! I am so happy with how he worked! We were running second and whenever we've tried to run him second before he was just too distracted with the other dog but he was just a star! He even got his weaves with a tunnel sitting right at the end which has always been tricky for him so I was just so happy! lol! Sorry I'm rambling. 

Haven't got any videos but I found some cute puppy piccys instead :D . 

Hello Sunshine!

Wasn't entirely sure we'd be seeing you this year but here you are. Unfortunately  Mr sunshine gave me some sunburn on the one day it actually cloudy?! :( Oh well i guess it'll go brown eventually. To be honest this is prob going to be a bit of a downer of a post but oh well, not entirely sure anyone even reads these things anyways lol. So had a completely rubbish week, a bit ironic considering the lovely weather but it always seems to do that. After the Rommys injury again last week, finally getting better and then the head of some pretty shit family news rears its head. All the rubbish things really do seems to come at once I guess, because the rest of the week has been pretty much of a downer since then. I mean not as rubbish as the weekends news but you know... just little things being continuously crappy. I really do try to stay positive but I can honestly say some times its A LOT easier than others.


I honestly am that crazy dog lady, Rommy really has saved the day(or should i say week) hes just such a little star, just a real clown. His face really does make me laugh. Even when hes insisted on finding something to roll in on nearly every walk this week with all the fresh horse poo around everywhere. 

Do not fear as he had a bath this afternoon with a very lovely smelling shampoo so hes not all nice and clean. More importantly his yeti feet have been banished and hes all neat again. Finally.

We also did some really quick weave entry practice in the garden yesterday and he really was a superstar, was getting entries all over the place, he did need some help in bits but he just worked so hard considering weaves are prob his least fave bit of equipment. didn't get any video because I couldn't be bothered after a VERY tricky afternoon of work, Instead just a quick clip from a very sunny Tuesday training. bloggers being rubbish so here's the link 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWpcwhV1kMk




Not much to update on the Kizzy monster other than shes getting more adult hairy now and shes still a completely lunatic. Not long now till she can be spayed so at least then she can run wild  outside instead of trying to jump into the toilet. 

BANG!

So finally got round to starting to teach Rommy 'BANG!' today, after a lot of shouting about it he seems to have got the idea now. Might want to turn the speakers down a bit, trick training is a very noisy activity if your Rommy :) 

I hate cloth tunnels

So shuttleworth turned out to be pretty rubbish, I don't know what it is about that venue but Rommy always gets injured there which is a shame because its nice and close. Oh well, he's still got JDA there in May so maybe we can get through that one health. So anyways lets get back to what this is actually about, cloth tunnels. As you might know or guessed that that this time it was a cloth tunnel that messed mr Rommys back up again this time. My god he's so breakable! It was in one of his jumping runs, he broke his wait (naughty boy) and went down the line of jumps like a bat out of hell into the cloth tunnel. I'm pretty sure the thing wasn't pegged right and it was winding so the cloth was kind of folded over. So Rommy flew in there so bloody fast got himself all caught up in it and ended up twisting himself completely around, poor boy has no luck. He seemed to look alright after but if nothing else I know what hes like and I knew he had to have something messed up. So thanks to his physio Rommy we got to see her on Monday and back on his stretches and no agility for a week :(.

 So I'm odviously I'm really angry about cloth tunnels at the moment, and I'm really really wanting the things to be banned. There has been alot of story's and videos around of dogs getting hurt in tunnels and even a dog having to be pts from an accident in one. it really worries me what actually needs to happen before the kc see how potentially dangerous they are. Not even the entries to them just how dangerous they are on there own coming into them at speed. I mean I know to us this is a sport and there's always a risk in doing it because i know freak accidents do always happen, but I think a specific peice of equipment that is just hurting dogs so much is just ridiculous, and something definitely needs to be done. To me there's a risk in everything we do in life but doesn't mean I'd go jump off a cliff, yes I MIGHT be ok but the chances are I won't be. 

Sorry rant over now

Me again

Well this blogging thing is quite addictive isn't it? Hello me again. Went to training today and got lots of videos. Watching them back I think I've actually learnt a lot from from seeing what the hell I'm doing or more to the point what I'm not really doing. I need to stop saying 'Here!' as much when I'm not completely sure what else to say. I'm pretty sure his 'left' and 'right' will work if I can ever remember which is which at speed... not something I'm good at. Pretty sure its my Dyslexic brain catching up to me and I totally go blank. I also need to actually listen and do what I'm being told how to make something better. I mean I am listening... I really am but I'm actually not doing it, even though my brain thinks it is.... Maybe I need to pause and absorb it for 2 secs, I DUNNO. I really do need to get used to thinking better at speed because its really not that easy and Rommys not even mega fast. I'm really not sure who all those super fast collie people cope!  One other thing I learnt is that Rommy really is amazing for putting up with me and he really does try so hard even when I'm kinda not helping him lol. He makes improvements every week, his A frames are just getting better all the time, his waits in the last week getting a bit better after Bretford and hes also starting to get a bit tighter :). SO anyways heres a really long video from today... sorry its a bit long. 

 

Fetch!

Musings

Well this a non post post. So I'm really kind of sad I'm not at a show this weekend. The weather is all nice and sunny and I'm not making good enough use of it not being at a show lol. Which is stupid really because rommy clearly isn't really ready to be doing any agilitys at a show yet. Anyways weekend at home with some nice walks and lie ins, I must be going mad actually wanting to get up at the crack of dawn on the weekends. So I thought as we haven't got any actual agility to do I should do some homework and remind Mr Roomster exactly what the hell ketschker turns are. Turned out he didnt seem to have forgotten them as much as I thought. Fingers crossed we can try some out at training and maybe some shows this year. 

Speaking of shows, I have actually no idea what the hell to expect from mr man this year. I've got alot I'd like to try this year but he's an unpredictable fellow at the best of times at shows because he's so bloody wild and friendly. I think my main aim is to keep him fit and healthy, I really don't want to have to repeat the problems and the winter he just had. Poor lad. Next to keep him with me and then to have his aframe really consistant in the ring and training. Anything else happens along the way would just be extra. How he did at bretford is definitely already in the extras category. I'm still absolutely amazed by that. I mean what the hell little blog? 

Onto kizzle mcwizzle, she's such a wierd little cat. She's such a Maine coon in her head because she really does think she's a dog. She seems to have got a thing in the morning now where she will go and find one of her balls, carry it to you in her month and then she'll play fetch and drop in in front of you to throw it again. She's nuts! She even drops it better than rommy does lol. Definitely need to try doing some more tricks with her. Saw a youtube video of a cat doing agility and I'm Defintely feeling a new enthusiasm for getting her do some fun things. I mean she is a dog after all. She'd love agility lol. Oh she also fell in the bath the other day. So funny lol. 

Next show is foxypants is spring at shuttleworth, I'm very excited for that adventure. God knows what will happen but I'm sooooo excited for it anyways :D. Eep! Yep... I must be mad. :) 

They might be right!

So everyone kept on telling me that the 2nd year of shows is always a lot better than the first. To be quite honest I didn't believe them...

Yes its only like 3 shows in but thing are already seeming a lot better than last year and most things are getting better every show. Rommy is faster and a lot more focused and above all hes staying with me!! :D. This weekend we went off to the Bretford Easter show on Sunday. I didn't realize before hand but it that was the day the clocks changed so we lost an whole hours sleep :(. So being very sleepy we went off to the show anyways, the satnav was being a complete idiot but we finally got there and Rommy was utterly mad from the second he got out the car. Hes NEVER been that excited straight away before! I wasn't quite sure if it was a good thing or not. Whether it was going to be his complete insanity of uncontrollableness OR Im ready to work crazy... you can never really tell which one it is with Rommy until your trying to get around a course....

SO first up was the 'Egg 'gility' which was a steeplechase with the option of an Aframe (the faster route) or you could go around it with a set of jumps. As we've only been doing the A frame at full height for 3 sessions and always with stride regulators I wasn't quite sure it would be a good idea to do the A frame but in the end I thought we'd be a little be daring (lol) and give it a go. This is def my fave run because he only went and was a blooming star and did an amazing little A frame. Clever Romster! And he only went and got 1st! :O. Dolly spanner was also 2nd but unplaced :(. Thanks to Rhoda and Matthew for the videos! 

Next up was Combined 1-3 Jumping. One not do good thing from this weekend was that with every run Rommys waits just got worse. I just about managed to get to past the second jump on the first run, nearly to the second jump on the second run and barely past the first jump on the last. A bit too much enthusiasm. DEFINITELY going to be working on those! Hes normally so good aswell :/. Oh well can't have it all. Anyways back to the jumping, we managed to get another clear round and we got another 1st! 

After that last up we had graded 1-3 jumping, it was pretty much the same course backwards but without the weaves. We all had some very clever pups because Rommy got 1st AGAIN, Matthew and Brooke won in the small grade 3. They're first win! and Dolly spanner got an unplaced 3rd. They all had the clever brain juices running that day! :)

I actually CANNOT believe how well Rommy did, hes such a special boy but definitely not the easiest dog ever. So hes now got 2 grade 3 jumping wins... eeek! Tired face picture!

And just because she made us all laugh... Kizzy antics...

I had to dig her out..... 

Snow is Annoying

So the snow is back... and its easter! What the hell is up with that... very annoying now. Couldn't go to training again because of it all :(. All the mud its made now aswell its just generally really annoying I've missed having a nice clean sheltie. Winter really does make me appreciate a freshly brushed dog. I just had to get some pictures on his after grooming walk because he just looked so fluffy and handsome! Rommy really wasn't amused by me making him stop for photos but heyho its a hard life being handsome!

 Kizzy is just getting bigger and bigger shes gained nearly 300g this week. Shes got a really big obsession with water and the freezer noises at the moment. Got some picture of her watching the bath run this evening. Shes so funny you could leave the tap dripping and shell be entertained for literally hours! Shes always got wet feet from playing in the sink. You can see her longness in the pictures as well. 

But on the upside to no training I had Rhoda's  Brooke come for a bath who's always a star and then after we got to have puppy fun with the little miss Sparkle! Even Kizzy got to join in the fun! Kiz was a bit sleepy as it was normally her afternoon siesta time but her and Brooke ended up settling down for a nap together. It was very cute, theres pictures over on Rhoda's blog. Rommy and Sparkle got on really well and he loved having her over, they had a bit of a play in the garden and I just loved seeing how good Rommy was with her. hes such a sweetie and Sparkle is such a good little girly!

Progress

Lots of progress, I like progress. To start off we went to the only nice day of Ajax on Friday and what a nice day it was. The ground was really good and Rommy was even better. YAY! Getting there I was planning on doing an NFC agility run with him to practice contacts, but with his A frame still not remotely ready I decided I just decided to work on building confidence and concentration. Now Rommy being the friendly and nosy boy he is he finds people and numbers very interesting. So instead as there was 3 steeplechases on that day I would do all of them plus the jumping to get him weaving in the ring... and if possible keep him with me which was the major challenge of 2012. So here we are 2013 and he managed to stay with me for ALL of his runs to get 4 clears... first time EVER! Yes in one run he did have a couple of looks at the judge standing at the end of a line of jumps but bless his little cotton socks he stayed with me. He really made me run too! I only have two of his steeplechases on video it wont seem to let me post it normally but heres the link :) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkV9pWuEZxM 

He managed to get himself 4 rosettes, one clear round, one 3rd and two 2nds. But more importantly he stayed with me :D. Fingers crossed we can keep it up for the rest of the year.


We also had training today it was the second lesson with the A frame at full height, hes still using stride regulators which are amazing. Got most of them on video because I find it so much easier to watch everything slower... my eyes and brain cant keep up. I thought he was so much better than last week and he only had 1 miss and 1 trying to stop. I've put all of them together in one video with normal speed and slow mos as I thought it was nice to see him getting it more and more in each one :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRLzUBTLRN0

More videos :)

SO more videos :), managed to get an extra cute video of Rommy and Kizzy. We had an water gift bag left over from Mothers Day which Kizzy decided it was hers and it was a great place to hide and bat his legs and jump out and pounce on him.... great idea. Poor boy. So Rommy thought it would be an even better idea to do this... Kizzle was unamused.

So went to training as well today, it was sooo cold! we did lots of running to warm up :). We mostly worked on his Aframe as it was the first time on full height. He did really well but he did stop a few times to start with which i think was might partly be because hes not used to coming down at that angle so fast. He also hadnt done any in a few weeks but after a while of reminding him he did seem to get the idea again a bit more. One things for sure... he LOVES getting to do them :).

Vids

Wasn't crufts great? I was unlucky enough to get Ill for the whole weekend so I couldn't actually go on Friday like I planned :(, BUT It meant I could spend all weekend watching it and made feeling rubbish not nearly as bad as it could do :). Even Kizzy enjoyed watching it!

So anyways just a couple of videos I meant to put up from before Sheltie Show. He was back to speed which was great, he forgot the seesaw once and has kind of forgotten funny turns since October... but that just a really fun thing to work on a bit more now :D. His dog walk has definitely got better as well

Sheltie Show

So we had our first show of the year over the weekend at sheltie show! It was lots of fun, with some very nice people and LOTS of shelties. With the winter we've had with Rommys injury I wasnt even sure we would make it to there so I was just amazingly pleased just to go and get to run! We only started jumping him on Medium height for the first time 5 days before the show as I wanted to bring him back reasonably slowly, but Rommy being Rommy it wasnt a problem at all and he was looking even better than he did before all his problems. So off we went to sheltie show, this is a picture before the show... he was already tired...

And this was him and his funny tired face after...

So what happened between these two photos I hear you ask?!
WELL he was a very good boy and worked really well, even when we made a few mistakes he carried on and worked through. His brain used to totally turning off if he had to stop for anything was a big problem of his last year. Another thing I was really pleased with he didnt go and visit a judge/ring party even when there was a judge standing right by the weaves! WOO! A couple of not so good things were that he did pop out the ring twice but once i got him back he did work really well so not all bad :). Another great thing was he did get one clear in the 1-3 Steeplechase managing not to go visit his friend Sally who was sitting at the end of a tunnel and he even got 1st place! Clever puppy! 

We had even got to try pairs with Rhoda and Brodie! I got a bit lost on the course but we had great fun anyways they were such good boys! Rommy loved getting to be in the ring with his Toad friend and Auntie Rhoda!

A successful first show of the year I'd say! Very proud of my little man! On other news Rommy got his first sunbathe of the year in today! Maybe the weather will stay and he might get another one tomorrow :). Also Kizzy seems to have grown so much already, she seems to have got very long legs. Maybe this is her Maine Coon-ness starting to appear?! The vet seemed to think shell end up as a normal size cat... personally I'm thinking/hoping she be a bit more like her Maine Coon dad! Good luck to Rommy if she does :D lol.

Byeeeeeeee 

Kizzy!!!

Say Hullo to Miss Kizzy!

Kizzy is a 12 week old Maine coon X tabby we got last week. Shes completely bonkers and full of beans and quite a bit of a diva! Shes a very bossy and confident little girlie, she settled in straight away. She came from a household with 5 collies so she has had no problem getting used to Rommy and he already knows shes the boss!

This was her last night discovering some windchimes and she was getting very angry about not being about to reach them. Sorry about the bad recording the ipad cover is in the way abit but i had to get it out quickly so i didnt miss it, shes just so cute!

Theyve been so much fun watching them today. Kizzy has been having a mad day after recovering from her vaccinations on Friday so theyve been chasing each other around this morning and a lot of this evening. Kizzy thinks its the best game ever, espically getting to pounce on Rommy. Poor boy.

We've all missed Lily so much in the last few weeks, she was such an amazing personality and I know Rommy has been missing her not being here. Its so nice to see that he loves finding a cat that will actually play with him. Lily was much to civalised to do such things after all she was positive she wasnt actually a cat but a actual person. Bless her.

Its going to be my mission in the next few days to try and get some video of the blue and furries zooming around playing its just so funny!

And Rommy news, hes been doing so well at training lately, so happy with how well hes come back after being off for so long. He's got his first show on Sunday at sheltie show! very excited, hes not going to be doing any agilities because we've still got work to do on his running a frame but just very excited to get him back out there again :). Its going to be our first try and pairs aswell with Rhoda and Brodie so fingers crossed he doesnt get too distracted with all the shelties around.



Bye for now :)

Agility

Hello little blogger, I have managed to get alot of videos but haven't posted them... So here we go. Rommy is now back at training only doing baby things but he's absolutely loving, he's a bit wild but Blimey he's got faster.... Hopefully when the jump heights go up again I might be able to keep up abit easier again. I've also started the fun task if retaining his aframe to a running contact. Hes only done a couple of lessons of it but he seems to be getting it really well. He didnt miss any on the low a frame last time.... Clever Rommy. Fingers crossed his awesomeness carries one with it :).  

Here a video or 2 of Rommys first lessons back in the puppy class. 

                                                                                 

One thing I have noticed is that he's paying a lot more attention which is great. I think some of its just his confidence from not doing anything for so long but hopefully some of its from the all the heelwork we did and we can keep it up because he really loves his heelwork now... Bless him.Thinking about having a go at obedience at some point in the future :)

Video from his second puppy class back 

Going to actually remember to take my camera to training next time so i can get some good video of his running a frame hopefully :)

Bye for now :)

Good News

So this week we've actually had some good things out the way and just some general good news. Rommys back is finally better! YAY! The whole thing has been going on since November and he hasnt done any proper training since October! It has been a very long time and I have been working really hard with him and he seems to finally have worked :). Cant wait to get him back out there, with any luck the break will have done his brain good. We've done a lot of heelwork in the meantime which have already really helped his focus so we've definitely got some positives out of such a long injury! The other good thing is I finally got his second measure done. We went with Rhoda and Dolly over the weekend and they both measured medium :). Apart from all that Rommy has absolutely loved all the snow we've had, spends most of his time eating it and trying running around like a crazy thing. We went for some very nice walks with friends even though Rommys legs did snowball really badly he still loved it. 

with all the snow and ice we did some of trick training, I decided to try and teach him to get into a suitcase.He was a bit confused what the hell I was trying to get him to do to begin with but he actually loves getting in or on things so he picked it up really quickly in the end :). Managed to get a video of it thanks to Hazel. 

One other thing I've decided to work on is retraining Rommys A frame to a running contact. With all the back problems hes had over the last few months I felt it would be better for him, so they're should be a few videos to put on here in the next few weeks. Heres a quick video of his second go at running on a plank, the plank isnt very long and Im working on getting a long bit of carpet at the moment :) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3a1ZeHgWVo


And heres just a picture of Rommy enjoying his Burns bag 

CYA!

Horrible weekend

We had pretty horrible weekend to be honest. Our lovely Lily cat passed away saturday evening. We love and miss her very much, the house is not the same without her there. There will never be a cat quite like her.

The good and The bad

Hello, so I hope if anyone's reading this that your having a good 2013 so far and it's bringing lots of good things to you :). So far as far as Mr Rommy is concerned its good and bad. His rib injury is fingers crossed all better now but bad that hes still got a few little tweaks to clear up. Although I am very pleased that he is very nearly there and we've got a lot of fun strengthening things to do. 

I am very excited about this year of shows and training, a lot to look forward to! Lots of work to get him back into agility and also decided it would be best for Rommy to retrain his aframe so fingers crossed that isn't too bad! So hopefully ill have a few training videos to put up in the next few weeks. 

And just because he's very cute here's a picture of rommy having a nap with his fave Christmas toy!